People worried loved ones' organs being sold

Leo Wahyudi S, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

When Sony heard his older brother, Purwanto, who was stabbed to death on June 11, was going to be given an autopsy, he was horrified. The rest of Purwanto's family was just as horrified, and demanded that they be given Purwanto's body immediately so they could take it home for burial.

This was a fairly typical reaction here, where the word autopsy has all sorts of negative connotations.

"We were afraid the hospital would remove Purwanto organs during the autopsy. We have heard that hospitals sell the organs to make money," said Sony's uncle.

Autopsies are usually performed on people who have died of unnatural causes. This includes victims of traffic accidents, suicide, murder, workplace accidents and poisoning.

Among these categories, murder tops the list, followed by suicide and traffic accidents.

Normally, the brains, lungs and heart of the corpses are examined to help determine the cause of death.

Many people who object to autopsies being performed on their loved ones do not understand their importance in determining the cause of death, which is vital for the work of the police and the courts.

According to the Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital (RSCM)'s forensic department, between January and June of this year 22 percent of the 1,027 bodies sent to the hospital's morgue were taken home by their families before an autopsy could be performed.

The head of the forensic department, Agus Purwadianto, vigorously denied that organs were removed and sold following autopsies.

"It is a misperception on the part of the public that forensic doctors remove the organs and keep them for their own benefit," he said, adding that the organs in most bodies that eventually made it onto the autopsy table were already decayed and of no use to anyone.

Marius Widjajarta, a senior medical doctor and the chief of the Indonesian Health Consumers Empowerment Foundation, also denied that organs were sold following autopsies.

"I can guarantee that the rumors are not true," he said.

He also denied that hospitals sold unclaimed corpses to medical schools in need of bodies for their students to practice on.

Samy, a second-year student at the University of Indonesia's School of Medicine, said students always worked with cadavers that had been dead for some time.

"When we study forensics, we usually put back all the organs into the body and return the cadaver to the family," Samy said.

Marius emphasized that taking unclaimed bodies even for educational purposes was not done lightly, and procedures were always followed.

"Claiming these cadavers can only be done according to strict procedures that have been jointly set up by medical schools and hospitals," he said.

The head of the morgue at RSCM, Mardiyono, said the morgue received about 40 corpses per month that went unclaimed.

The City Cemetery Agency is responsible for burying these unclaimed corpses either at the Pondok Rangon cemetery in East Jakarta or the Tegal Alur cemetery in West Jakarta.